Attendance
Attendees: Jim Farmer – President (holding District 8 and 10 proxies), Nancy Zangerle – Vice President (holding District 12 proxy), David Anderson – Finance Chairman, Eric Faust – Executive Director (non-voting), Todd Warnygora – District 18 (holding District 14 proxy), Tim Oelschlager – District 15, Doug Hosford – District 21 (holding district 20 proxy.) Attendance represents a quorum.

Call to Order
J. Farmer called the meeting to order at 0805.

Introduction of Attendees
Each attendee gave a brief introduction.

2004 Minutes
The Minutes of the 2003 meeting were reviewed.
Motion: After brief discussion, D. Anderson made a motion to accept the minutes as presented. The motion was seconded and approved.

President’s Report – J. Farmer
J. Farmer thanked all attendees for their time and acknowledged the many people who have helped and contributed throughout the past year, particularly the District Governors. The USJCA has seen some decline in membership over this year, but participation at regattas has been strong. Internationally, the USJCA remains, by far, the largest NJCA in the world. We are in a position now to work closely with the other associations around the world towards growing the class as a whole. At the IJCA annual meeting, Bob Turner was named the new International Class Chairman, which will be beneficial to this process.

Executive Director’s Report – E. Faust
Review of U.S. Class membership for 2005 shows the Class will most likely lose approximately 5% of its membership this year. This is most likely due to the location of the 2006 Worlds in Australia and therefore the lack of interest in the world qualifying events during the year. However, due to the premium membership levels implemented this year, the membership revenue will increase slightly over 2004. An overview of the Class finances shows that the U.S. Class has operated within its budget for 2005 and is projected to have a modest positive net income for the year. Royalty tags sails have been strong, but the USJCA does not realize full profit from all of these tags because of the international rebate program by which the U.S. gives a credit for exported sails to the country to which they are shipped. The class has produced and mailed one U.S. magazine and a wall calendar so far this year and the second magazine is currently in production. The U.S. has budgeted for the purchase of one international magazine for each paid USJCA member and it will be mailed to all 2005 members when it is produced. J. Farmer indicated that the IJCA is currently producing one magazine as an annual “year-book,” which fits the USJCA’s publication plan. A recap was given on the major regatta from the year and a brief preview of upcoming events in 2005. As stated in the President’s report, regatta attendance has been strong.

Financial Chairman’s Report – D. Anderson
D. Anderson stated that the Class currently has about $40,000 in the bank which puts the class in a position to cover expenses for the remainder of the year. The premium memberships worked well to bring in additional income this year and should be continued in 2006. The Class purchased a new scale this year at a cost of around $2,200 dollars and may need to cover the cost of keel templates. E. Faust mentioned that there are some problems with the new scale and it may be returned for a refund if they are not resolved soon. N. Zangerle pointed out the balance sheet includes $500 in fixed assets for miscellaneous measurement tools which is in error since the class does not actually own any of these assets. This line item was mistakenly created when the U.S. and international class offices were separated. E. Faust agreed to correct this error with a journal entry. The 2006 budget was reviewed. It was presented in the same format as previous years, grouping revenue and expenses by their useful purpose. D. Anderson indicated that the budget is relatively stable year-to-year because expected income is relatively stable. The proposed 2006 budget shows the Class realizing approximately $6,500 in net income for fiscal 2006. This amount is a fairly aggressive target and should act as a slight cushion if unexpected expenses or revenue shortfalls arise. The 2006 budget once again includes the purchase of one IJCA magazine and the production of two USJCA magazines. D. Anderson pointed out that the most important long-term issue for the Class is stabilizing membership and there may be some need for allocating money for promotional purposes. It was therefore recommended to table approval of the budget until promotional issues were discussed later in the meeting. .

District Reports
Each District Governor in attendance gave a brief report on the activities in his area. Other District reports were read from email or delivered by the proxy holders.

Old and Unfinished Business
N. Zangerle requested clarification of the discussion of qualification for the World Championship from the 2004 meeting. The agreed upon allocation of berths for the 2006 Worlds was reviewed. There was some discussion regarding distributing Worlds berths based on membership rather than on strictly geographic (District) criteria. After further review it was agreed that the northeast region should be allocated one additional berth based on the number of members in the region.
Motion: N. Zangerle made a motion to take one of the two berths from the 2006 Midwinters (for the 2007 Worlds) and award it to the 2006 East Coast Championship to be held in Annapolis, Maryland. The motion was seconded and approved.

New Business
How to get qualified sailors to commit to attending the Worlds. E. Faust mentioned the difficulty in getting qualified sailors to attend the World championship. Due to the expense and planning involved, getting commitments from teams is somewhat difficult. By the time a decision to not attend is made, it is typically too late to get the next qualified team organized to attend. There was some discussion about having sailors commit by a certain deadline after the qualifying event or the berth would be automatically passed down to the next eligible helmsperson. It was decided that each qualifying helmsperson will be given 60 days from the time of the qualifying event to commit to attend the regatta or the berth would be passed down to the next sailor. E. Faust will send emails to the qualifying sailors to this effect after the 2006 qualifying events. In addition, it was decided that in order to encourage U.S. participation at the 2006 Worlds, a posting would be placed on the U.S. Class website inviting any U.S. member to attend the Worlds in Australia on a first come, first served basis.

Qualification for the 2008 Worlds in Italy: Based on historical precedent, it was agreed that the following events will be qualifiers for the 2008 Worlds. One berth at each of the five Regional Championships, one berth for U.S. Nationals, one berth for 2007 Midwinters, and one berth for the USJCA President. All regattas pass down within the top 3 or top 10% of the fleet (whichever is greater.) Unfilled berths will be distributed based on petitions and resumes sent to the USJCA Class office.

Status of Major Regattas:
2006 Midwinters – The Davis Island Yacht Club will host the event again and preparations are underway for another well organized event. IJCA Chairman, Bob Turner, will be in attendance and we will be organizing an informal members meeting for Thursday night of the regatta.
2006 Nationals – E. Faust reported that plans for the Nationals in Houston are going well and the regatta website will be available in the next few weeks.
2006 North Americans – The organizers in Rochester have secured Bacardi as the title sponsor for the event. An international jury has been selected and is pending approval by the IJCA.
2007 Nationals – The regatta is scheduled for April of 2007 in Jacksonville, Florida, two weeks after the Easter regatta. This will avoid a conflict with the 2007 Worlds in Mexico.
2007 North Americans – The California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey will host the event in July, 2007.

Location of 2007 Midwinters: Proposals from both the J/24 fleet at the Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa, Florida and from Flat Earth Racing in Miami, Florida were presented and discussed. The proposal from Flat Earth Racing was incomplete and it was agreed that the 2007 Midwinters event will be held at DIYC in Tampa, Florida.
Motion: D. Anderson made a motion, “To accept the bid from the Davis Island Fleet 86 to host the J/24 Midwinters in 2007.” The motion was seconded and approved.

Location of the 2008 U.S. Nationals:
The rotation of major regattas was reviewed and it was determined that the 2008 Nationals should be held in the northeastern U.S. E. Faust relayed that Dan Busch, District 4 Governor, had expressed significant interest in holding the event in the New Jersey area. It was agreed that this position would fit the rotation of events in the U.S. There was also tentative discussion to then hold the 2009 Nationals on the west coast, probably in the San Francisco Bay area.
Motion: T. Oelschlager made a motion to, “Award the 2008 Nationals to District 4, pending submission of an acceptable proposal to host.” The motion was seconded and approved.

Location of the 2008 North Americans: There was general discussion about the location of the North Americans and the rotation of the event throughout the continent. E. Faust described that he had obtained approval from the Canadian and Mexican JCAs for a 5-year rotation schedule for the North Americans. The agreed rotation would see the NAs in the U.S. in 2007 and 2008 and then move to Mexico in 2009. After further discussion, it was determined that the best location for the 2008 event would be in the center of the country in the Great Lakes Region. D. Anderson and T. Oelschlager agreed to solicit likely clubs with the intention of obtaining a proposal to host for approval by the Board of Governors. Proposals will be reviewed and approved by email vote during 2006.

World Council Report: J. Farmer gave a recap of the 2005 World Council meeting held in England. At the World Council meeting, much of the discussion was about rules changes and the processes and composition of the Technical Committee (TC). The conclusion was that NJCAs will nominate members for the TC and the IJCA World Council will then elect 9 members to staggered 3-year terms and those members would in turn elect the Chairman of the TC. The World Council also passed various rules changes that will then be submitted to the ISAF in August of 2006 for inclusion in the next set of Class Rules in 2007 at the earliest. (For a complete rundown of rules changes and the proceedings of the IJCA World Council meeting, visit www.j24class.org and see the official minutes.) In addition, J. Farmer stated that he had been elected the IJCA Vice Chairman and Bob Turner had taken over as the IJCA Chairman.

Review of Premium Membership Program: The existing system was reviewed and it was agreed to continue to offer premium membership levels with a new assortment of apparel items for each level. The price points would remain the same for 2006.

Growth and Promotion: There was a general discussion of promotion ideas. N. Zangerle discussed several ideas for Class growth and promotion including: Developing a standard press release template for use by regatta hosts in order to maximize press coverage of events; Articles in Class publications regarding rules interpretations and best practices for traveling with J/24s; Leader flags for regatta series to indicate the series leader; Developing a new logo on the transom sticker as used in Germany; developing and printing other J/24 promotional stickers for general distribution or sale; Determining the interest and finding a likely host for a 30th Anniversary J/24 regatta potentially at Sail Newport; Negotiating and obtaining multi-year contracts with sponsors for J/24 regattas; Developing a system for selling J/24 merchandise through licensed J/24 clothing manufacturers and returning to each NJCA a percentage of the sales price.

J/24 Women’s Open Championship: Beverly Yacht Club in Marion, MA had expressed interest in hosting a new women’s J/24 event in the summer of 2006. There initial intention was to make the regatta a regional, East Coast event. N. Zangerle said she would work with the organizers to expand the scope of this event and work with the IJCA to obtain a World Championship berth for the winner of the event in order to increase the prestige of the regatta and encourage participation. It was discussed that this event could be run on alternate years from the Women’s Rolex Championship to encourage more women to participate in J/24 sailing.
Motion: D. Anderson made a motion that, “The USJCA support the creation of a new women’s championship event and that N. Zangerle be appointed as the liaison between the organizers and the IJCA.” The motion was seconded and approved.

Update to Website: N. Zangerle asked that the USJCA Constitution on the Class website be updated to reflect changes that were approved at the 2003 Board of Governors meeting. E. Faust agreed to take care of this.

Database of J/24s and J/24 sailors: D Anderson suggested that one of the best ways to build Class membership would be to develop a list of all the known J/24s and J/24 owners and sailors. It was discussed that promotional memberships could be given to these prospective members to encourage them to join in the future. It was determined that the Class needed to develop a database of all boats and known members in order to institute a plan of this type. The District Governors should be solicited to develop a regional list of potential members. These members could then be targeted with a promotional magazine or other mailing and perhaps a complementary membership for a limited period of time. J. Farmer suggested that the most effective method of getting new members is to contact and call the people individually and ask them to join. T. Warnygora and D. Anderson agreed to start the development of such a database using D. Anderson’s web server as a platform for the implementation.

Promotional J/24 Poster: N. Zangerle proposed printing a promotional poster, which would include a schedule of major regattas, and distributing it to fleets, yacht clubs and other locations.
Motion: J. Farmer made a motion to “Approve the previously proposed 2006 budget with the addition of an allocation of up to $2,500 for membership recruitment activities including the production and distribution of a promotional J/24 poster.” The motion was seconded and approved.

Election of Officers
J. Farmer, citing his new position as the IJCA Vice Chairman, announced that he would not stand for reelection as USJCA President and then proposed a slate of officers for the coming year. The slate was Nancy Zangerle as President, Paul Scalisi as Vice President, Reid Stava as Technical Chairman, Todd Warnygora as Governor’s Representative and David Anderson as Finance Chairman.
Motion: D. Anderson made a motion, “To elect the slate of officers as proposed.” The motion was seconded and approved without discussion.

2006 Board of Governors Meeting
It was decided that the date for the 2006 Board of Governors meeting would be October 21, 2006. E. Faust suggested that determining the specific location would help to maximize attendance at the meeting. Upon further discussion, it was decided that the exact location for the meeting will be determined in the next several months and announced to the Board of Governors.

Adjournment
At 1700, D. Anderson made a motion to adjourn. The motion was unanimously approved.